Image via North Country Public Radio

Evoking the venerated president’s history promoting trade diplomacy, Georgetown professor and former White House International Economic Affairs Director Steve Glickman argues Congress should support an international trade agreement currently under negotiation with Japan and 10 other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Let’s not forget that America has a long history of using economic and trade diplomacy to achieve foreign policy goals. Just a few years after the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt advocated for the passage of the Reciprocal Tariff Agreements Act in 1934 (providing the model for modern free trade agreements) to support our relationship with the Soviet Union. In later administrations, President Harry S. Truman utilized the Marshall Plan to affirm our standing in Europe; President John F. Kennedy leveraged the Trade Expansion Act to secure the Western Alliance; and President Bill Clinton pushed NAFTA to strengthen North American economic integration.

If approved, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, would strengthen economic ties with 12 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Japan, and Vietnam.  TPP countries form America’s largest good and services export market. Approximately 44 percent of exported goods and 27 percent of exported services already go to TPP countries.

By removing tariffs and non-tariff barriers on most U.S. exports, the improved access to Asian markets the TPP will create should grow the U.S. economy. As Glickman notes:

[The] TPP is estimated to create $78 billion per year in income gains for U.S. workers, driven by $123 billion per year in additional exports, according to the Peterson Institute.

Check out Business Forward’s overview of trade negotiations for more information about the TPP and other trade agreements.

Read Steve Glickman’s op/ed in Rollcall >